IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH FOR THE EXECUTION OF JOBS?

The new 2023 cycle has already begun and on January 12th I gave the lecture "They want it! They can! They can do it!" to the employees of Companhia de Projetos de Construção e Montagem LTDA (CMPC) an industry located in São Luís - MA and, at the end of the lecture, I received a question from one of the employees who took as a basis my experience in managing construction sites where men and women worked together, and asked me if there was a difference between men and women in terms of physical strength for the execution of civil construction work.

I answered yes. However, while men endure more efforts made repeatedly with weights, such as, for example, in masonry lifting services with concrete blocks, which weigh around 13 kg, women, on the other hand, add activities in the painting service using greater technique and skill, i.e., with this simple allocation we can optimize both hands of work and ensure greater productivity and quality in the execution of the service.

The employee, in turn, wanted to deepen the subject and one of the company managers asked to answer and reported that today, in relation to strength, he sees no difference between female and male work, since technology allows the adequacy of equipment preserving ergonomics and enables good execution regardless of who is operating, as in the case of the wheelbarrow that is adapted for transporting heavy materials.

I readily had to agree, because technology has really brought solutions to promote inclusion and reduce waste and unnecessary effort during execution. From this perspective, it is pertinent to bring up a concept from the Toyota Production System that reinforces our position in this dialog. The deployment of lean production mentions seven types of waste that are capable of compromising the productivity of an organization. One of them is the loss caused by unnecessary movements or efforts (the others are defects, overproduction, stocks, unnecessary processing, unnecessary transportation, and waiting) (OISHI, 1995).

At that moment I considered only my perceptions throughout my field experience and did not visualize all the possibilities that already exist and are not yet implemented in our operations. During this period I observed their productivity in handling the block to lift masonry without the same speed as the men; their fear of working at height in painting service; and the difficulty to balance holding the paint bucket and roller. Because of this, we had to make the decision to mix the team with men and women, taking advantage of each one's potential without yet thinking about trying to improve by using better equipment.

If you ask me do we already have all the solutions in technology for all the services that demand greater efforts that do not differentiate between men and women? Honestly, I confess that I don't know the answer and that's why I believe we should consider that we still don't have the right answer, but we do have scenarios to analyze, solutions to seek, tests and validations to be done before saying that there are no differences, even when we have technology in our favor.

As the manager of the company expressed his opinion and it is correct even from the standpoint of organizational literature, I believe that CMPC has already included in its strategic planning, guidelines that do not differentiate men and women in physical strength within its operation, giving indications of being a company that is already ahead, working for diversity, inclusion, parity, equity. This episode made me conclude that a world in growing transformations and with the need for the insertion of women in the labor market in operations should not be limited to physical strength. But can we say that this problem has been eliminated? I believe not and that, unfortunately, we still don't have a definitive opinion, but a possibility of letting it become extinguished, where all women will be able to conquer their financial independence and without the prejudice barriers that still exist.

The intervention of the manager and his answers were of great value and learning, making me think outside the box and bringing to the speech an "it depends" that awakens our eyes to new questions about the subject. When we are willing to pass on our experience, we learn much more than we teach, and this is in fact very rewarding in the lectures and mentoring that I do. With each experience I continue to be even more motivated to work for the empowerment and development of more and more women, this is my mission and the commitment of all of us at Ela Faz. I leave here registered my gratitude and a wish to see you next time.

Lívia Viana – CEO da Ela Faz Tecnologia